Very well done for what they are, though I just can't help feeling there's a wasted opportunity here. This character type is just as hard to find in tabletop gaming. Why not use the same art assets and add another .pdf with cardboard standups for use at the meatspace gaming table?

That isn't anything wrong with this product, just something I wish had also been available and which would make me much more interested in Wyldfurr's other offerings.

PROS: These are ... wow. Gorgeous, really bringing back that homey old "dungeon crawl" feel. I'm actually surprised how much I prefer this look to the more modern "well-polished" e-Adventures style for old school fantasy gaming.

For kids' fantasy games, where you may want a single permanent layout to make games more friendly, gluing these to black poster board will make a wicked awesome gameboard.

CONS: This set is MUCH harder to use than geomorphs. Also, an errant breeze or a knock to the table will completely destroy the layout, while with geomorphs the layout could be quickly re-created. I'm more likely to print these on plain paper and glue them permanently, which is a bit wasteful.

A loooot of ink is wasted on the unnecessary parchment background, and the way it increases the overall image size makes it very difficult to scale the rooms up and down (for, say, 1.5" clickbases, or the slightly-bigger-than-1" bases required to fully base some Reaper figs).

Thank very much for the review! Positive and practical. Me gusta.
You're absolutely right, the Sample Pack is certainly not very economic with ink, and I've been concerned about this - ironic because I like to think of the proper set as being "printer-friendly". For now I've amended the product description, and plan to revise and republish this sample set so that it represents the main product that I'm trying to sell more closely , i.e. the Modular Dungeon Basic Set. I hope to do this in early 2011, if not sooner.
Thank you for the comparison with Geomorphs. Much like some of the products that I'm trying to emulate from the 1980's these cut-to-size modular pieces are a slightly different beast - I recommend printing to heavy card or gluing them to larger piece of card like you suggest. Different gamers will have different preferences. I certainly recommend weighting the stand-up doors! :)
On the matter of larger grids - I may have investigate these markets further ... ;)
Thanks again,
-Bb
http://inkedadventures.com

A beautiful character with a well-modeled face, presented in a variety of poses with a couple different weapon choices.

I'm not crazy about them putting her in a thong in most of the fully-clothed images, which strikes me as pandering considering she's otherwise armored; frankly, it just looks silly. This detracts from usability, which is the only thing keeping this from a five-star rating.

It takes real chutzpah to release a game set in a world like this to show off your miniatures rules. I really admire that.

I do wonder, though, why they used the real (copyrighted) names for all these characters. The names could be changed very slightly to remove all liability and also provide another level of parody.

Also, this game is begging to have its own (preferably crudely drawn) cardstock minis included. You're never going to find similar characters in another cardstock set or in metal ... well, maybe Chocula, but that's it.

My three-star "average" rating for this set takes into account that most people will buy it as a joke. A sasquatch completely covered in hair except the breasts? Hilarious, but not too useful. There also aren't that many pieces for the price (considering that at this price point you'd generally get 20+ hand-drawn minis).

I'd only ever actually use a couple miniatures from this set, mostly for monsters that are traditionally topless (like harpies). But the rest of it is still really, really funny, and I'm looking forward to populating a harem with them for my next April Fool's adventure.

A fascinating adventure in a deeply interesting and complex location. Lots of really great fights, only a couple of them skippable. Intriguing NPCs and a great social puzzle. Surprisingly adaptable, too -- I'm not running the entire campaign, in fact my D&D4E game is set in a Deadlands-like *Wild West*, and yet only a few tweaks were necessary to make it run perfectly.

The only "complaint" I have is ... with the sheer number of weird and use-once monsters, geez, I'm going to have to buy a TON of miniatures to run this adventure! While I agree that it is by no means required ... if they came out with a War of the Burning Sky cardstock miniatures set I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

There ARE some good ideas here. The overall arc of the plot is excellent and there are some really nice bits (in the second scenario in particular).

Unfortunately the adventure is plagued with ... look. In the gamebooks you are playing a single specific character, Lone Wolf. If you die and play the game again you are still playing Lone Wolf. You aren't putting in the effort to create a new and dynamic personality from scratch. There's also no one else present to be frustrated, or that will be unable to proceed because of the loss of your character's skills.

In a tabletop adventure module players have more invested in their character than two die rolls, five picks off a list and half an hour of reading. The loss of one character will affect both the group's survivability and their experience.

Terror of the Darklords has Test after Test where failure leads to instant death. Not ENDURANCE damage, but death. Some of them are fairly understandable choices, too, and in some cases they are *unavoidable* due to certain areas' railroading (the forcing of players along a specific plot track regardless of what their characters want to do). There is one long dungeoncrawl consisting of alternating Tests and combats that goes on far too long, and it's almost immediately followed by a VERY difficult combat.

The adventure also warns that a "terrible sacrifice" is required at the end. I ran the situation past a couple of experienced roleplayers. Both of them came up with alternate solutions requiring no sacrifice and having a greater chance of success ... neither of them even CONSIDERED the possibility of doing what the adventure obviously assumes they'll do.

There is also a problem with the interpretation of the Kai Code in this module. Many of the Lone Wolf books require you to make difficult moral decisions, and it's good that the modules for the multiplayer version offer the same. Unfortunately, the writer's interpretation of the vows of a Kai Lord ... does not match the interpretation in the books. In fact, in a couple of the original gamebooks very similar situations are presented and the player is PUNISHED for acting the way that this adventure absolutely requires.

#1 - The Kai Code forbids hoarding WEALTH. Kai Lords who reject offers of weapons or don't search treasure chests because that's "not what they're there for" don't end up obtaining vital keys and objects for later on.
#2 - The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, over and over. There is a specific puzzle in Book 2, in fact, where worrying more about protecting the people than accomplishing your mission kills Lone Wolf and dooms all of Sommerlund.

The book is also filled with typos and grammatical mistakes. Granted, this doesn't affect the quality of its material, but it is an indication that this book did not see nearly as much editing as it needed.

Some parts of this book are very useful, particularly the first couple of scenarios. I wouldn't run anything after that, though -- not without changing so much that I might as well have just written an adventure on my own. I'm hoping this isn't indicative of what to expect from future published adventures.

The artwork featured in these figure flats is variable, but several of the images are absolutely fantastic. A wide variety of different character types (and ethnicities!) are represented.

Two minor quibbles:
1) By themselves the figures print out significantly too large to go with the standard miniature sizes. This problem is easily fixed by printing at 85-90% size.
2) The website for Infinite Dreamers is currently down, so it isn't possible to obtain the large .PNG versions of the characters (you receive a URL with your purchase, but it doesn't work). Large versions are included in the .PDF, however.

An excellent short LARP, very flexible in its number of players. Some players may have religious issues with the portrayal of certain concepts, but I doubt it'll be a problem. Note that heavy cross-casting will be required if you have a mixed-gender group -- virtually all significant characters are male.

This is a pretty good resource for GMs looking to add authentic Fae lore to their games. There's nothing in here that you couldn't get by doing the research, but what's the point of a supplement if not to save the GM time?

One note: for the love of Isis, if you're going to have a cover like THAT, include a copy with the download! The only cover in the .PDF is in black and white, so it's deceptive to have the original color cover in the product description.

This is a hard one to wrap my mind around; it has the surreal elements of games like Nobilis and Polaris, with occasional tiny touches reminiscent of the more redeemable parts of Wraith: the Oblivion.

For your 25 cents you get a lavishly illustrated booklet with the Betmal basic rules and orientation, a detailed city description, and the same basic rules and orientation in plain text for printing.

The 4 Points system seems more oriented towards hardcore or at least very experienced players; the system isn't "crunchy" but it has enough numbers with nebulous enough definitions that novice players may be scared away.

I am not crazy about the style of most of the art, but the layout is gorgeous.

Ultimately I find myself interested in the game but not sure I'll ever play it. That doesn't change the fact that this is a slickly produced, irresistibly priced teaser for a deep, complicated system with a lot of power to it.